Hook of Holland to Amsterdam

Holland was built for bikers. Not only has this been the most beautiful ride I have embarked on, it was the easiest. Not in sense of difficulty but due to the fact that for 95% of my 100km ride I was in a bike lane. Compared to my ride to Harwich which contained sixteen-wheelers going 60 miles an hour this protection was a blessing. Furthermore, the diversity of stunning sights was amazing. I began my trip on the coast of Holland. As I biked off the ferry I was immediately greeted by off white beaches, contrasting with the light blue ocean filled with almost noble sailing ships.

As I turned inland beaches and oceans transformed into green houses and forests. Green houses are far as the eye can see incited a sense of wonder within me. You would be hard pressed to find a place which utilizes this technology more than Holland. The forests, on the other hand, are derived from the very antithesis of technology. Biking surrounded by an armada of trees, older than most buildings to date, carries along with it a sense of intrigue and mystery hard to come by anywhere else. My trip inland did not fail to maintain it’s diverse trajectory. The farther in I went I was greeted by pastures filled with sheep, cows, and horses, farms containing a plethora of vibrant flowers, sugar beets, and grand wind mills and river after river with overjoyed families boating at high speeds and tall, intimidating, grasses growing into the background. It was as if I had been thrown into a utopia of sorts.

A utopia that was interrupted by 200km of bumps, hills, twists and turns. This was my second day in a row biking with only a six hour rest stop on a moving boat and to be frank my butt and back were more than aware of this. Every new crack in the road and every time I bent over to reach my lower, more aerodynamic, handles a new world of hurt would remind me that I really should have trained more for a trip of this magnitude. I recall seeing a horse flop down and enjoy, lazily, chewing on his mid-day snack and I couldn’t help but wishing I was that horse. Lying down, enjoying the cool grass as the scalding sun beat down on a biker only a few meters away. A dream which quickly faded after seeing the multitude of geographical wonders that followed. You see that horse is contained to her pasture, contained to the limited space allowed to her by another party. She will never be able to bask in the glory of the forests near by nor will she be able to see the endless ocean because, unlike you and me, she isn’t free. Freedom, for better or for worse, is the ability to roam, unhindered by a third parties will. Now none of us are really free, as we have to abide by the laws of a society, but there are certainly levels of freedom. The question is how do we utilize the limited freedom we possess? I implore you, don’t lie down and eat the grass instead jump over the fence, who knows what’ll be waiting for you?

Cool stuff about the Netherlands!

The Netherlands are extremely flat and more than a quarter of it’s land is below sea level with 50% being just a meter above. This extremely wet landmass is very susceptible to floods. Usually this would not be a good thing but, the Danish have used this unique attribute to further their causes more than once. Starting with the Eighty years war against Spain (1584-1586) the Danes flooded strategic points to force Spanish armies out of the Netherlands. This natural weapon was used again in 1672 and the 18th century against French invasions. In addition, during World War II floods were used by both the Allies and the Nazi’s to push one another out of the region.

The Dutch’s knowledge of how to effectively flood a nation was not limited to the weaponization of water however. In a humanitarian effort, after hurricane Katrina, Dutch experts were called in to aid with the revitalization of Louisiana and other affected areas.

The more you know 🙂